Before Countdown to Christmas
by redladyreba
Summary: Finally! A brief synopsislinkcharacter list for both show BOP and Gargoyles for those of you who may not be too familiar with one or both of the shows. Reposted with garg site listed now!


Over the course of the past several months I've received a few reviews and emails from readers letting me know that they liked the story even though they weren't totally familiar with all of the characters. Seeing as how this is a crossover story its to be expected since not everyone is familiar with both shows. Since I'm about to delve into a major battle scene and its aftermath, a number of new characters are going to be introduced into the story and its just not possible to explain who all of them are without straying from the story line. So I figured it might help to write up a brief synopsis of each show and their characters. Hope this helps for the upcoming chapters and will give you a better background to the past. I apologize if I skip what you might think is critical, but I'm trying to hit what I thought were details that would help set the stage for this story.

Birds Of Prey 

This TV series only lasted one season sadly, but for anyone who is familiar with the comic version of BOP this is NOT it. The series takes place several years after Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl is shot and paralyzed from the waist down by the Joker. On the same night, Selina Kyle was also killed by a criminal named Clayface, leaving behind her only child Helena Kyle. What Selina kept secret from most people, Bruce Wayne included, was that he was the father to her child. After tracking down the Joker one last time, an emotionally broken Batman/Bruce Wayne disappears, leaving New Gotham to its own defenses.

The show never really goes into detail as to how Barbara came into custody of Helena, only that she did. Barbara recreated a new life for herself and used her vast computer knowledge and extensive detective skills to assume the new identity of Oracle. Helena had inherited her mother's meta-human abilities which mainly consisted of enhanced vision, hearing, strength, and agility. Barbara trained Helena as Bruce had once trained her, and the two women became a crime fighting team.

Dinah Redmond is another meta-human whose gift is touch telepathy, and the ability to foresee certain things in the future. She was raised in another city (sorry the name escapes me right now but it isn't really important) by abusive foster parents who said Dinah's abilities were acts of the Devil. The teen finally escaped her home and fled to New Gotham where she had a number of dreams about meeting a woman in a wheel chair and a tall dark woman that would save her life.

Enter Helena aka The Huntress and Barbara aka Oracle. Barbara takes Dinah in as her ward, enrolls the kid in her school where she teaches and the series launches from there. They of course fight bad guys and break up various plots and schemes each week, but there's a couple of underlying storylines that are threaded through out the season so here they are along with a main character list.

Barbara Gordon aka Oracle: Former Batgirl now the mentor of both Helena Kyle and Dinah Redmond 

**Helena Kyle aka Huntress: **Daughter of Selina Kyle (Catwoman) and Bruce Wayne (Batman) The new vigilante of New Gotham once Barbara was paralyzed and her father left.

**Dinah Redmond aka (new) Canary: **A telepathic meta human teen who journeys to New Gotham in search of a new life with two women she saw in a number of dreams she had as she grew up. Daughter of Carolyn Lance the former Black Canary.

**Alfred Pennyworth: **Devoted butler to Bruce Wayne who has also taken it upon himself to watch over the Birds' as they take up the fight.

**Detective Jesse Reese: **An NGPD Detective who finds himself an unofficial member of the Birds' team as the series progressed

**Dr. Harleen Quinzell aka Harley Quinn: **Joker's psychotic girlfriend who has taken control of the Underworld in his absence. During the day she poses as a therapist, which allows her unbridled access to some of New Gotham's worst criminal minds locked up in Arkham Asylum.

**Wade Brixton: **A teacher at New Gotham High who falls in love with Barbara.

Harley Quinn is introduced in the first episode as Dr. Harleen Quinzel. She's Helena's court appointed therapist after Helena gets busted for anger management issues. Throughout the series Harley works her way deeper into Helena's mind, and eventually gains enough trust from the young woman that Helena confides in the doctor about her double life which ultimately leads to disaster towards the end of the series.

Dinah's heritage. Turns out she's the daughter of Carolyn Lance- the Black Canary. BC makes a brief appearance in an episode in which she is also killed saving everyone. At least that's what the writers led everyone to believe. Dinah already had abandonment issues, so after her mom is killed she has some serious anger management issues to deal with as well.

Helena/Reese. Helena runs across Detective Jesse Reese during a case, and over time gains his trust enough for them to swap info. They flirt for a long time, fight a few times, and he constantly asks her why she can't trust him enough with her real name- all he knows her by for most of the season is Huntress. The flirting gets more serious with time, and in the end she finally gives in and tells him who she really is.

Barbara/Wade. The tragic romance of the series. Wade is a teacher at the school with Barbara who falls hard for her right off the bat. Unfortunately there are some obstacles he has to overcome- like Barbara allowing herself to open up emotionally to someone and be involved in a relationship. Especially with someone who has no clue to the fact that she leads two separate lives. The second being his parents who make it clear that they aren't too keen on him dating someone who is 'handicapped'. But love wins out, and their relationship gets intimate to the point where not only does Barbara let him into her bed but she finally tells him the truth.

Quinn's Plot. Seems that Quinn is the big new player in town, and while no one realizes it until its too late, she basically controls most of the underworld. She plots and schemes throughout the series, and launches a full blown attack on the Birds at the end. She has gained the ability to hypnotize anyone and have them do her bidding, and she gains control of Helena/Huntress. After breaking into their Clocktower lair, she kills Wade who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sends Helena out to kill Barbara and Dinah. Barbara manages to get through to Helena, and they all go back to kick Quinn's butt. But in the end, Barbara almost crossed the "no kill" line and the mood of the series is left a little pensive even though they defeated Quinn.

Helena's emotional issues. Haunted by her mother's murder and driven by a desire for revenge, Helena/Huntress comes close to crossing the line a few times. Helena has some serious issues to deal with- emotional grief being the major factor. She also resents her father a great deal for leaving her and Barbara, and doesn't want to have anything to do with him or his money. She of course has commitment issues- which includes her warming up to Dinah and actually thinking of her as part of their 'family'. But eventually she works through these two problems. And then there's the whole trust factor...which is why Quinn's deception made things a hundred times worse.

Reese's ties to the Underworld. Seems Detective Reese had a few secrets of his own, the primary one being the fact that his father is Al Hawke the Mob Boss of New Gotham. Things definitely become unpleasant when Hawke's actions lead to Black Canary's death. Reese arrested his badly injured father, and was forced to stand up to Dinah who wanted to kill Hawke.

Well I can't think of anything else that is critical to know to understand the story better, but if any of you can think of anything let me know and I'll update this.

Now onto **Gargoyles**.

I was contemplating writing up this whole thing myself but gargoyles lasted several seasons and was followed by one last season of a show titled The Goliath Chronicles (which most garg fans seem to hate with the exception of one or two episodes). So summarizing the series and the characters would have been really hard. However, there is a really good web site that will explain everything! (Ok so I have been having a hell of a time trying to get the web addy posted on this but the system isn't letting me type it in as is so I hope you can follow the next instructions.)

Type in only what is inbetween the " " Keep in mind there are no spaces between any thing but this seems to be the only way I can get this on the site. "www." "gargoyle-fans." "org" "/char" "." "html"

If you have any more questions just email me and I'll send you the link directly.

Not all of these characters are relevant to the story but it will give you a good idea of who's who and what's what.

Well I hope that helps to clear some things up and now I'm gonna get back to working on the story.....


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